Hotel Africa 1

I kind of wanted to have a hotel day and post Hotel Africa and Hotel Harbour View together, but I wound up posting the latter first and I wanted it on top for a day.  I could have edited it so that this was the case, but I figured I’d just put off writing this one until today.

I also kind of put off reading this series for some reason.  It was the most interesting-sounding of the Hee Jung Park series released by Tokyopop, plus it takes place in the United States, which always sort of fascinates me (I should probably read Banana Fish if I’m into that sort of thing, though).  I was a little put off by the fact that I seem to remember the initial plot summary I read mentioning an Elvis impersonator, which sounded too cheesy to me.  There’s one here (along with the main character being named Elvis), but he’s not actually alive for any part of the story, so I’m not sure why it was mentioned wherever I read it.  No Elvis impersonators, though.  Just some really wholesome stories about people and their relationships.

It was wonderful.  The way the story is set up is that Elvis, the main character, lives in New York City with his roommate/boyfriend and their best friend, July.  They’re struggling actors, and each of the chapters starts off with a short incident in their lives, then flashes back to Elvis’ childhood, when he lived with his mother and grandmother in Hotel Africa, a not-very-often-visited hotel in Utah.  Sometimes the stories run for more than one chapter and you don’t get to see more of the present day, and some of the stories at the back of the volume are about July’s past, but for the most part, the short stories are about Elvis’s family and the guests in their hotel.

Most of what goes on at the hotel happens around Elvis instead of to him since he’s 4 years old for most of the flashbacks in this volume.  His father passed away around the time he was born, so his mother is left alone.  Shortly after their hotel opens, they get a permanent guest named Geo, a mysterious man who swears up and down he will marry Elvis’ mom.  The first story deals with how Elvis’ parents met and also how Geo came to live with them.  Another story deals with a friend of the Grandmother’s, and how one man expresses love for 30 years.  One story is about how a pair of rough-looking bikers turn out to be a couple of nice guys when you feed them and give them a chance.  One story is about a pair of girls who are dead-set on committing suicide on the cliff behind the hotel.  You know, things like that.

They all have really powerful endings, usually happy, and they all ring pretty genuine in terms of emotion.  Some of them are extremely bittersweet, and every single one of them is a good story.  Even though there’s not a lot of information given about a lot of the characters, they still read really well, and you still feel for them when things happen.  Usually the stuff isn’t too bad, but occasionally it will be heart-breaking, and the subject of death is dealt with a couple of times.  Hell, I’ll admit one of the stories almost made me cry, and it dealt mostly with a character that only appeared in that chapter.  But it was still a beautiful story.

I hate to make a comparison to Sand Chronicles, especially since I just compared something else to it not too long ago, but it’s the same sort of thing.  Some of the lessons are for Elvis, and they’re the types of things one goes through in childhood, but a lot of the lessons are also for other people, and they’re the same types of things one goes through one’s entire life.  Did I say they were great?  Because, yes, they’re great.

I’ll caution you by saying I really like these types of stories.  I’m not entirely convinced everyone should read this, and I can’t endorse it as heartily as, say, From Eroica with Love.  But if you enjoy slice-of-life stories, you’ll like this.  I promise, it’s great.